| EASTLAKE BRIDGE CLUB | ||||||||||
| THIRD HAND PLAY TO TRICK ONE (CONTINUED) | ||||||||||
| 1) | You lead the 3 of spades and partner plays the jack, taken by | |||||||||
| declarer's queen. | Who has the Ace and who has the Ten? | |||||||||
| DUMMY | ||||||||||
| ♠ 764 | ||||||||||
| WEST | EAST | |||||||||
| ♠ | K9532 | ♠ J | ||||||||
| ♠ Q | ||||||||||
| DECLARER | answers | |||||||||
| 2) | You lead the 3, partner's queen is taken by declarer's Ace. | |||||||||
| DUMMY | ||||||||||
| ♠ 76 | ||||||||||
| WEST | EAST | |||||||||
| ♠ | KT53 | ♠ Q | ||||||||
| ♠ A | ||||||||||
| DECLARER | ||||||||||
| Who has the Jack? Later on, partner gets the lead and returns the 2. | ||||||||||
| How many east might partner have started with? | answers | |||||||||
| 3) | You lead the 4, partner plays the ten and declarer the K. | |||||||||
| Account for all the missing cards! | ||||||||||
| DUMMY | ||||||||||
| ♠ 653 | ||||||||||
| WEST | EAST | |||||||||
| ♠ | J8742 | ♠ 10 | ||||||||
| ♠ K | ||||||||||
| DECLARER | ||||||||||
| How many spades does partner have? | answers | |||||||||
| 4) | You lead the 6, partner plays the Ace and returns the ten. | |||||||||
| DUMMY | ||||||||||
| ♠ 84 | ||||||||||
| YOU | PARTNER | |||||||||
| ♠ K97632 | ♠ A | |||||||||
| ♠ 5 | ||||||||||
| DECLARER | ||||||||||
| Who has the queen and who has the jack? | answers | |||||||||
| THIRD HAND PLAY WITH AN HONOR CARD IN DUMMY when… | ||||||||||
| 1) | Third hand does not have an honor card higher than dummy | |||||||||
| DUMMY | ||||||||||
| ♠ K73 | ||||||||||
| WEST | EAST | |||||||||
| ♠ 2 | ♠ Q95 | |||||||||
| ♠ ? | ||||||||||
| West leads the 2, dummy plays low, East should play the queen. | ||||||||||
| Rule: | If Third hand has no honor card higher than dummy, he plays as if | |||||||||
| dummy had no honor cards at all. | ||||||||||
| 2) | Third hand holds an honor card higher than dummy | |||||||||
| DUMMY | ||||||||||
| ♠ Q83 | ||||||||||
| PARTNER | YOU | |||||||||
| ♠ 2 | ♠ AJ4 | |||||||||
| ♠ ? | ||||||||||
| Partner leads the 2, dummy plays low, what should you play? | ||||||||||
| Let's look at what might be the card holding: | ||||||||||
| DUMMY | ||||||||||
| ♠ Q83 | ||||||||||
| PARTNER | YOU | |||||||||
| ♠ K952 | ♠ AJ4 | |||||||||
| ♠ T76 | ||||||||||
| If you play the jack you win the trick, return the Ace and (high from 2) | ||||||||||
| and then the 4, which partner wins and takes the 4th trick | ||||||||||
| If you play the ace, return the jack (or low), declarer wins the queen. | ||||||||||
| How do you know that partner has the King? You don't - but you | ||||||||||
| know that a low lead usually is from an honor, so it could | ||||||||||
| be the ten or the king (that's all that's left of spade honors). | ||||||||||
| Let's see what happens if partner has the ten instead of the king. | ||||||||||
| DUMMY | ||||||||||
| ♠ Q83 | ||||||||||
| PARTNER | YOU | |||||||||
| ♠ T952 | ♠ AJ4 | |||||||||
| ♠ K76 | ||||||||||
| If you play the ace on trick one, then declarer will get 2 tricks, both | ||||||||||
| the king and the queen. If you play the jack, next time partner gets | ||||||||||
| in he can lead the ten and declarer will not get the queen. | ||||||||||
| Any time the opponents have the king and the queen of a suit, they | ||||||||||
| are entitled to one trick - however if you play the ace, without.taking | ||||||||||
| the queen, they will get 2 tricks. | ||||||||||
| The rule for third hand play when you hold an honor card higher than | ||||||||||
| dummy's honor is: | ||||||||||
| Rule: | 1) If dummy plays the honor card, you cover (play your higher honor) | |||||||||
| Rule: | 2) If dummy doesn't play the honor, third hand keeps his honor and | |||||||||
| plays his next highest honor provided it is a 9 or better. | ||||||||||
| DUMMY | ||||||||||
| ♠ Q74 | ||||||||||
| WEST | EAST | |||||||||
| ♠ 2 | ♠ K93 | |||||||||
| ♠ ? | ||||||||||
| West leads the 2, and dummy plays the queen, east would cover with | ||||||||||
| the king. If dummy plays low, east should save the king, holding it | ||||||||||
| over the queen and play the 9 instead. | ||||||||||
| Now change East's 9 to an 8. If dummy plays low, east should play the | ||||||||||
| king. If third hand is to retain his honor card over dummy, he must be | ||||||||||
| able to insert the 9 or higher. | ||||||||||
| 5) | Assume your parter (west) leads the 2 and dummy plays low | |||||||||
| which card should you play from the following holdings? | ||||||||||
| K73 | ||||||||||
| WEST | EAST | a) | ♠ AQ9 | |||||||
| ♠ 2 | b) | ♠ QT5 | ||||||||
| c) | ♠ AJ9 | |||||||||
| d) | ♠ A64 | |||||||||
| e) | ♠ QJT4 | |||||||||
| f) | ♠ AJT9 | |||||||||
| g) | ♠ AT8 | |||||||||
| h) | ♠ J9 | answers | ||||||||
| Another situation for third hand play occurs in the following holdings: | ||||||||||
| DUMMY | ||||||||||
| ♠ Q73 | ||||||||||
| WEST | EAST | |||||||||
| ♠ JT98 | ♠ A62 | |||||||||
| ♠ K54 | ||||||||||
| West leads the jack and dummy plays low. What should east do? | ||||||||||
| Rule: | If partner leads an honor card, and dummy has a higher | |||||||||
| honor and third hand has an honor higher than dummy's, third hand | ||||||||||
| plays his honor only if dummy plays his honor. | ||||||||||
| REMEMBER COMMON SENSE RULES! | ||||||||||
| NORTH | In this auction you are sitting East and opponents have ended up in 6 Hearts (oops). Partner leads the jack, declarer plays low. | |||||||||
| ♠ K32 | ||||||||||
| WEST | EAST | |||||||||
| ♠ JT98XX | ♠ A54 | |||||||||
| ♥ A3 | ||||||||||
| ♦ 654 | ||||||||||
| ♣ J9832 | ||||||||||
| ♠ Q | ||||||||||
| East knows that South has the queen of spades but MUST rise with the | ||||||||||
| Ace to ensure setting the contract! He has the ace of trump and must | ||||||||||
| take a spade trick to set it. If he doesn't take his ace, declarer will | ||||||||||
| win with the queen and trum the rest of the spade losers. | ||||||||||